As the corona lockdowns have stretched into month four--
can you believe it, months four--
many people in America cannot wait to get back to work,
and there's one American
who can't wait to get away from work,
which is why, after weeks of buildup,
Donald Juneteenth Trump held a campaign rally
in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
his first rally since the coronavirus shutdowns,
but like most of Trump's sentences,
it didn't exactly go as planned.
NEWSMAN: This morning, sources close to the White House say
President Trump is furious
that his much-hyped campaign reboot went bust.
His Saturday night rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma
drawing a much smaller than expected crowd.
The president had boasted
that a million people requested tickets,
and he promised to fill the 19,000-seat arena.
But the Tulsa fire marshal tells NBC News
that 6,200 people showed up,
leaving rows of empty seats.
NEWSWOMAN: Outside the BOK Center,
these workers took down the overflow stage early.
The president had planned to address the crowd there,
but no crowd materialized.
Oh, poor Trump.
For somebody who was born into wealth
and never suffered a single consequence for his actions,
this dude just cannot catch a break,
because nothing is more humiliating
than when you throw a party
and most of the guests don't show up.
I still remember when that happened
for my twelfth birthday.
Oh, really?
All of your grandmas died on the same weekend?
(crying)
I find that very unlikely.
So why was turnout
for Trump's rally so low?
Well, the Trump administration claims
it's because protesters blocked the entrance, which,
like most things the Trump campaign says, is not true.
The most likely explanation
for all of those empty seats in that arena is that,
as much as some people love Trump,
they also love not dying from coronavirus.
Oh, and there's another thing
that might have thrown off Trump's numbers at the arena,
and it has to do with K-Pop.
NEWSMAN: It turns out the Trump campaign
might have been trolled by teenagers,
TikTok users and Korean pop music fans.
Before the Tulsa rally, these tech-savvy groups
mobilized to reserve tickets for an event
that they had no intention of attending.
Oh, my God! I just registered for Trump's rally,
and I'm so excited to not go.
NEWSMAN: While it's unlikely they were solely responsible
for this low turnout, their antics may have inflated
the campaign's expectations for attendance numbers.
Clearly, not everybody showed up in Tulsa.
Maybe people heard the huge numbers and said
they didn't want to go through the hassle of the crowds.
(laughs) Goddamn, that is hilarious.
Getting foiled by a bunch of meddling kids.
I mean, that means Trump is basically
a Scooby-Doo villain now.
Although, at least, Scooby-Doo villains wear masks.
And I'm proud of these teens. I mean, think about it.
In 2020, TikTok went from being an app
where you learn dances to, "Hey, guys, this is how
we abolish the police and take down the president."
Now, Trump was reportedly really unhappy
when he looked out and saw the empty seats, but you know what?
The people who were there were pumped up
to see their guy again, because, remember, a week ago,
when Trump used two hands to take a sip of water?
Well, just look at how excited this crowd was
when he managed to drink a glass of water with only one.
They said, "You couldn't lift your hand up
to your mouth with water."
I was speaking for a long time.
I didn't want to drink it,
but I wanted to wet my lips a little bit.
See, we have a little glass of water.
Where the hell did this water come from?
-(applause and cheering) -Right?
Where did it come from?
(cheers and applause)
Yeah! Whoo!
I'm proud to live in a country where the president
can drink water with just one hand sometimes.
It feels like the longer the Trump presidency goes,
the more confusing it's gonna be
for kids studying American history in the future.
So Lincoln was hailed for freeing the slaves,
and Kennedy was lauded for putting a man on the Moon,
and Trump got cheers for drinking water?
Do they mean inventing water? Is this textbook right?
Now, there is a lot going on in the country
that President Trump could have talked about at his rally.
Could have talked about Black Lives Matter,
the coronavirus pandemic.
But the topic that he devoted the most time to--
nine full minutes, in fact--
was how people made fun of the way
he walked down a ramp last week.
Last week they called me, and they say, "Sir, West Point,
West Point, we're ready..."
I was on the stage for hours.
Hours!
Sun-- I came home, I had a nice tan.
He said, "Sir...
we can now leave the stage."
I said, "Great, General, let's go. I'll follow you."
And he goes like this...
Because I'm wearing leather-bottom shoes,
which is good if you're walking on flat surfaces.
It's not good for ramps.
I'm being baked. I'm being baked like a cake.
(laughter)
I said, "General, there's no way I can make it down that ramp
without falling on my ass, General."
Now I have a choice-- I can stay up there
for another couple of hours and wait until I'm rescued...
(laughter)
...or I can go down this really steep,
really... really, really--
it's an ice skating rink; it's brutal.
The first thing I did, I looked at his shoes.
-(laughter) -Then I looked at mine.
-Very, very slippery... -So what happens...
is I start the journey...
inch by inch, right?
(laughter)
So I took these little steps.
I ran down the last ten...
And by the way, their tape-- take a look--
in almost every instance,
it ends just before I run.
I've never seen Trump that defensive before.
He spent so much time on this story
that now I'm more suspicious than I was.
Like, before, I thought, "Yeah, maybe Trump has some trouble
walking down ramps," but now I'm not even sure that he has feet.
It's also wild how Trump will talk for hours
about walking down a ramp,
but if you're asking about racism in America, he's like,
"Someone's looking into it.
We're gonna look into it. Let's move on."
So anyway, Trump tried to put on a brave face
and give the crowd a show, he told crazy stories,
he called COVID-19 the "kung flu,"
and one of the craziest parts of the rally
is that he even admitted that he's told his people
to slow down coronavirus testing
so that the numbers wouldn't look as bad.
Which is something we used to have to assume he was doing,
and now he's just telling us.
So I guess, thanks for the honesty.
But when it was all said and done,
it was clear that all of those empty seats
really took a toll on Trump.
NEWSWOMAN: This video, you see the president arriving
back at the White House after that event,
looking a little dejected.
NEWSMAN: Looked like he felt defeated
as he walking out of Marine One.
NEWSWOMAN: The fact that we're seeing him with his tie undone,
that crumpled MAGA hat in his hand...
It tells you that he wasn't able to-to basically put a happy face
on something that, for him, was just an enormous disappointment.
Man.
I have never seen a person get out of a helicopter
looking that sad.
He looks like he's walking home after a wedding
where he got stood up at the altar
but still had to party because everything was nonrefundable.
(sobbing quietly)
I mean, cheer up, Donald.
You've got plenty of reasons to be happy:
the borders are closed, Barr is firing prosecutors,
and no one's seen Fauci in weeks.
Come on, just take a double shot of hydroxy
and get back in there, Mr. President.
Because, honestly, it's weird to see Trump display emotion.
It's actually uncomfortable, you know?
It's like watching Mr. Potato Head get a boner.
I don't know how to feel.
But I think this experience was the first time
Trump actually felt the full weight and severity
of the coronavirus pandemic.
And what finally got to him
wasn't the 122,000 lives lost in America,
but instead, the 12,800 empty seats in an arena.
Well, that's our show for tonight.
But before we go, June is Pride Month,
and, right now, we want to highlight charities
that are making a difference for LGBTQ people of color,
like the National Black Justice Coalition,
which advocates for federal policies
that fight against racism and homophobia.
And if you're able to help them and you'd like to join in,
then, please, donate whatever you can.
Now, if you'd like to support efforts
to help black LGBTQ people here in New York specifically,
then you can donate to the Audre Lorde Project.
They help communities fight for their rights
and organize for change.